Month: October 2014

The producer is one of the most crucial yet anonymous figures in all of music. Every now and again we aim to illuminate these under-heralded artists with Beat Construction. Today, in a special Beat Week edition of the column, we caught up Mike Tucker, bka Blood Diamonds, the LA-based producer who’s best known for the rave-ready dance tracks he’s dreamed up with close friend and collaborator Grimes. But Blood Diamonds’ blissed-out sounds are echoing beyond his inner circle; the 24-year-old’s productions have turned up on Charli XCX and Tinashe records, he’s crafting beats for nascent rap stars Rome Fortune and Little Simz, and he’s part of the core team—that also includes Diplo, DJ Dahi and Ariel Rechtshaid—working behind the boards on Madonna’s as-yet-untitled 13th studio album.

You two are working on Madonna’s new record together, right?Yeah, we have been working on that for the last month. It’s been a lot of fun, definitely a big project. It’s me and Dahi, Diplo, Ariel [Rechtshaid] and Jimbo. I think it’s definitely going to be a good Madonna record. There are moments when you’re like, Oh this is definitely fucking Madonna.

Are you guys aiming for something really contemporary sounding with it? I wouldn’t say were trying to nail 2014. With most artists, Dahi and I try to approach it from a longevity standpoint. Especially if we’re pitching beats to someone its like, Is this fucking hot this month? Because this record won’t be out for another year. That can be stressful, but the bottom line is like making room for the song, because the song is really what stands the test of time. I feel like right now a lot of pressure to get that single, and get that dance tune. That’s probably the coolest thing about Madonna. She has been doing so many records for so long, it’s kind of irrelevant to try to fit into the now.

Halloween came early for the Material Girl last night when she wore a bustier number best described as Gothic milkmaid – albeit teamed with those lace gloves and crucifix of Like a Virgin days.
But it’s the boots we care about here at Fashion Finder. In another instance of a celebrity dressing straight off the Spring/Summer 2015 catwalk in clobber that lesser mortals will have to wait til the spring to bag.
Yes. These Givenchy over-the-knee boots actually feature in the house’s S/S15 collection so actually we’re not surprised it’s feeling like a good idea to wear them now.

Even her accessories were a clear nod to her Desperately Seeking Susan character in the 1985 cult flick who clothes herself in various designs picked up at second hand stores.
Black leather lace-up booties by Givenchy and black lace mitts were a dressy touch, and a heavy crucifix pendant adorned her throat.
Madonna’s magical attire mirrored the one she wore to the 1985 American Music Awards.

Earlier in the day, the Express Yourself megastar shared an instagram where three assistants helped to lace up her boots, while the singing siren herself lay on the floor in all her dark finery.‘These Givenchy boots tho…………#unapologeticb****,’ Madonna captioned the snap.
Once at the charity fundraiser, Madonna continued to look and act far younger than her years as she rubbed elbows with other stars appearing for a good cause.

Looking to increase the appeal of its in-flight meals, the airline has designed a special menu pairing each course with a pop song.

While American Airlines is removing in-flight meals on certain flights, one airline is hoping to make them a whole lot sweeter.

British Airways has developed a special “Sound Bite” menu that pairs in-flight meals to a 13-track playlist on the airline’s audio channel. The songs have been specifically selected to enhance certain dishes and draws inspiration from a recent study by Oxford University.

The study revealed that listening to music not only increases productivity but also heightens a person’s taste buds. In what he now refers to as “Sonic Seasoning,” Oxford professor Charles Spence concluded that listening to certain songs could make food taste up to 10 percent sweeter or more salty. British Airways is one of the first businesses to employ this research to elevate the traveler experience.

Based on the findings that British food is best enjoyed while listening to British music, the airline’s main course will be paired with “A Sky Full of Stars” by the British band Coldplay. Listening to the high tones in Madonna’s “Ray of Light” is expected to boost the sweet flavors in the rich pudding dessert. Travelers will end their in-flight meal with a cup of coffee while being serenaded by Plácido Domingo, since the tenor’s low notes are well suited for the bitterness of coffee. Other artists featured in the Sonic Bite playlist include Louis Armstrong, Lily Allen, and James Blunt.

“The sonic seasoning research is fascinating, and our pairings should really help bring out the flavors,” British Airways menu designer and chef Mark Tazziole said in a statement.

This is not the first time that Tazziole has looked for ways to enrich in-flight food. Researchers have found that people’s ability to taste is reduced by 30 percent while in the air, and Tazziole has also taken the effect of altitude into special consideration.

British Airways’ special “Sonic Bite” menu will be available on long-distance flights starting in November.

The Brooklyn-based punk rockers who recently tackled Britney Spears’ “Lucky” now have their sights set on the Material Girl.

The Dead Betties cover Madonna’s underrated ’80s hit, “Angel,” in their latest video. The clip features women embodying five of the Queen of Pop’s most iconic personas, including the street urchin of “Desperately Seeking Susan” and the “Erotica” dominatrix, strolling about downtown Manhattan and even riding the subway.

The band, which has headlined shows at SXSW and Toronto Pride, say the song — which first appeared on Madonna’s 1984 “Like a Virgin” album — has long been a personal favorite.

The band is composed of lead singer–bassist Joshua Ackley, drummer Derek Pippin and guitarist Eric Shepherd. They’re currently putting the final touches on a forthcoming album, which will feature the single, “The Way We Live Now.”

Ahead of MTV’s first Music Video Awards, broadcast Sept. 14, 1984, the network was having difficulty booking top talent. Co-hosts Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler were in their 30s, old for the MTV crowd, and ZZ Top had refused to play — until the network pulled the band’s videos and manager Bill Ham relented.

MTV did, however, secure a largely unknown singer whom MTV’s Chip Rachlin recalls “was a bit difficult.” Madonna wanted to sing a new song, “Like a Virgin,” to a full-grown, white Bengal tiger. The big cat was nixed. Instead, she decided to emerge from a 17-foot tall wedding cake and sing the song in a white wedding dress, a bustier and a BOY TOY belt buckle — a classic Madonna mixed message. But as she descended, one of her white stilettos slipped off. “So I thought, ‘Well, I’ll just pretend I meant to do this,’ and I dove on the floor and I rolled around,” she later said. “And, as I reached for the shoe, the dress went up. And the underpants were showing.”

MTV viewers were treated to a full display of what Madonna was wearing under the dress.

“Was it perfect? No, but it worked,” says her former manager Freddy DeMann. “I think we all know she had a few drinks, because she had to get up the nerve to crawl around like she did,” says Les Garland, former executive vice president of programming at MTV. “She stole the show.” But at the time, many industry people felt her performance was a disaster; her longtime publicist Liz Rosenberg says, “People came up to me and told me her career was over before it started.” Huey Lewis recalls that his longtime agent Dan Weiner scoffed and said, “This gal, Madonna — this is not going to happen.”

Ratings for the show were good, which “allowed us to assert a certain pull in the music industry,” Pittman says. Soon, music’s biggest stars were vying to appear at the VMAs. The next year, the awards were hosted by Eddie Murphy, who was, in Garland’s words, “the biggest star in the world.” MTV — thanks largely to Madonna — had launched its first franchise.

Every year since 1984, someone else has tried to steal the show: Prince wearing assless pants in 1991, Fiona Apple making a fiery and profane acceptance speech in 1994, Britney Spears frolicking with a Burmese Python in 2001. The VMAs were enshrined as “the what-the-hell-is-gonna-happen-next? show,” says Dave Sirulnick, who executive produced it for many years. “I can’t tell you how many times we heard artists say, ‘I want to have the special moment everybody remembers the next day, and three years later.'”

John F Kennedy Jr had a steamy relationship with Madonna who his mother Jackie Onassis hated because she posed as Marilyn Monroe on the cover of Life magazine, a new book has claimed.

JFK Jr, who was once dubbed the sexiest man alive, reportedly began seeing the Material Girl star in 1988 following the breakdown of her marriage to actor Sean Penn.

In his new book ‘The Good Son: JFK Jr. and the Mother He Loved,’ author Christopher Andersen tells how Madonna ‘went after’ JFK Jr, telling friends she believed an affair with him ‘would be nothing less than “cosmic”‘.

The book also quotes dancer Erika Belle, one of Madonna’s closest friends at the time, who claims JFK Jr was equally keen.

She said: ‘You could see it in his eyes that first time they met.
‘John was totally in awe.’

JFK Jr and Madonna would reportedly meet at a health club where they shared the same trainer and would occasionally jog around Central Park together in the early morning. While they managed to keep their relationship secret from the media, JFK Jr was not said to have been shy about introducing the singer to his mother.

The book tells how he brought her to his mother’s Central Park flat where she signed the guestbook ‘Mrs. Sean Penn’, as she was still legally married at the time. Jackie was reportedly unimpressed with the singer partly due to her use of crucifixes and other Catholic images which had been deemed sacrilegious by the Vatican.

But what is said to have upset her most of all was seeing a copy of Life Magazine which featured Madonna on the cover dressed up as Marilyn Monroe – Monroe being one of several women who her husband had famously cheated on her with.

Author Christopher Andersen writes: ‘One unwelcome reminder of JFK’s torrid affair with Marilyn — the affair that most troubled Jackie — arrived on her doorstep in the form of another blond bombshell by the name of Madonna.’

Another part of the excerpt published by the New York Daily News, highlights the steamy nature of their alleged affair. It reads: ‘One day while he was staying with Billy Noonan in Hyannis Port, John phoned New York to check his messages.

‘On the other end, a woman with a familiar voice was calling from Rome. “Kennedy,” she began, “I’m drunk and when I see you next I’m going to take your …” The rest was decidedly X-rated, and after John played it for Noonan, his friend asked to hear it again.

‘Unable to quite place the voice, Noonan begged John to tell him who it was. “Madonna,” John answered matter-of-factly.

‘Noonan was speechless. “You are banging Madonna?” Noonan asked. “How do I not know this until now?”

‘So what was it like sleeping with Madonna? “Let me tell you,” Kennedy replied, “she’s a sexual dynamo.”’

The book tells how at the time JFK Jr was still dating steady girlfriend Christina Haag – who Jackie O wanted him to marry – but somehow managed to keep his relationship with Madonna secret from her. However Madonna’s ex husband Sean Penn is said to have confronted JFK Junior over it when they met at a party in Robert De Niro’s honor at the Tribeca Grill. When JFK junior went to intorduce himself, Mr Penn, reported snarled: ‘I know who you are. You owe me an apology.’

According to the book JFK Jr then ‘beat a hasty retreat’ because he was aware of Penn’s reputation for fighting. JFK Jr is known to have had relationships with a string of women including Sex and the City actor Sarah Jessica Parker, who he is said to have seen at the same time as Madonna.

He died in 1999 in a plane crash along with his wife Carolyn Bessette, and her elder sister Lauren

Madonna’s True Blue has returned to the UK’s Official Albums Charts this week.

The Queen of Pop’s classic third studio album, which debuted at Number One in the UK when it was originally released in 1986, lands at Number 21 today (October 26) thanks to download service Google Play.

True Blue – home to the hits Papa Don’t Preach, Open Your Heart, Live to Tell, La Isla Bonita and True Blue – is estimated to have sold over 25m copies worldwide over the years, and is certified seven times platinum in the UK.

Boy George has admitted that he hopes Madonna can forgive him for the negative things he has said about her in the past.

The Culture Club singer, 53, who was presented with an Icon accolade by Naomi Campbell at the Attitude Awards earlier this month (October), discusses his sometimes strained relationship with the Queen of Pop in the latest issue of Attitude.

Asked which of Madonna or Lady Gaga he would invite to a private party, George replies: “Oh, can’t I have both? That would be such a fantastic combination. Can you imagine?”

“They would both be circling the block making sure they weren’t the first to arrive,” he then jokes.

“There was a fantastic party which happened in Paris a few years ago. Everyone was there, J-Lo, Puff Daddy – you name it,” George continues. “And I was there sort of looking on…Madonna and Prince, allegedly, spent about three hours circling the venue because they didn’t want to be the first to arrive out of the two of them.”

“I mean, I love Lady Gaga, but it would probably be Madonna if she could find it in her heart to forgive me. I have apologised a lot for the mean things I said about her.”